Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Mom's Mood, Baby's Sleep: What's The Connection?

Mom's Mood, Baby's Sleep: What's The Connection?: "ScienceDaily (Sep. 2, 2008) - ...those first six months of life are crucial to developing the regular sleeping and waking patterns, known as circadian rhythms, that a child will need for a healthy future...Babies whose mothers experienced depression any time before they became pregnant, or developed mood problems while they were pregnant, are much more prone to having chaotic sleep patterns in the first half-year of life than babies born to non-depressed moms...infants born to depressed moms nap more during the day, take much longer to settle down to sleep at night, and wake up more often during the night. It's a baby form of the insomnia that millions of adults know all too well..."Keeping a very regular sleep schedule is incredibly important," says Armitage. "We know that for both children and adults, and from this study we now know that for infants, the more stable the bedtime the less chaotic sleep is during the night."...Armitage and her team have devoted years to studying the links between sleep and depression, and the circadian rhythms, light-dark exposure, and other factors that appear to make a difference in sleep and mood. Over the past decade, they've shown that all are strongly linked..."We think we've identified one of the risk factors that may contribute to these infants' going on to develop depression later in life," says Armitage. "Not everybody who has poor sleep or weak circadian rhythms will develop depression, but if sleep stays consistently disrupted and circadian rhythms are weak, the risk is significantly elevated."...That's why, she says, it's so crucial to help all babies – and new parents – get the sleep they need."...Those first few months, in fact, are a kind of training camp for the baby's sleep in the future, Armitage says. Babies' bodies and brains need to be trained to understand that they should sleep when it's dark, and be awake when it's light – the basic circadian rhythm that governs sleep patterns for a person's entire life. This sets the baby's "body clock" right from the start..."

At some point in time the mainstream media will wake up and begin covering the story about how amazingly sensitive hundreds of genes are during prenatal and postnatal. OB's also need to become educated. Research clearly shows that certain foods, supplements and actions can change the health of your child... for life. You'd think this topic would be front page news on a regular basis... as it is this story on sleep, like so many others, is almost completely under appreciated in terms of significance.